Saturday, May 19, 2012

"Back in the 13th century, St. Thomas Aquinas warned his fellow scholars about taking positions that brought ridicule upon the church. "Ne fides rideatur," he said. Literally, "Don't let the faith be laughed at."Last week, we learned the U.S. bishops were launching an investigation into the supposedly subversive activities of our Catholic Girl Scouts.According to The Associated Press[1], Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Ft. Wayne-South Bend, Ind., and his fellows on the bishops' Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth will be looking into the Scouts' "possible problematic relationships" with groups like Doctors Without Borders, the Sierra Club, and Oxfam International "because they support family planning."Only a few weeks ago, we were laughing over the news that our bishops are investigating the doctrinal purity of our religious sisters, the most admired Catholics in the land. Who of us is not hooting this week over something even sillier, this latest attempt by our bishops to swoop down, Taliban-like, on our Girl Scouts?What, pray tell, is wrong with family planning? Rhoades would have us believe it's against Catholic teaching. He is referring, no doubt, to the so-called papal ban on birth control promulgated in Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical, "Humanae Vitae," which took the position that every marital act had to be "open to the transmission of life." The pope's courtiers said that meant couples were guilty of grave sin if, while making love, they used any artificial means of birth control, like condoms, IUDs or the pill.Since then, Catholic couples have vetoed the pope by simply exercising responsible parenthood in good conscience. They do so emboldened by their own common sense; an open worldwide debate on birth control during the 1960s; and a leaked report from Pope Paul VI's own Pontifical Commission on Population, Family and Birth-rate, which advised the pope to reverse the teaching of his predecessor, Pius XI, which stated that Catholics who practiced any form of birth control, including rhythm, would go to hell.Paul VI did not follow the advice of his own commission, not so much because he disagreed with its reasoning, arrived at after three years of serious debate, but because his ultra-conservative advisers in the Roman Curia couldn't figure out what he was supposed to do with all those souls he and his predecessors, Pius XI and Pius XII, had condemned to hell. I paraphrase the pope's actual words: If he dared change the not-so-ancient (1931) teaching, he would lose his moral authority. The ironic outcome: He didn't change the teaching and lost his moral authority. Most of the Catholic world ignored his thoughts on marital morality that were so antithetical to the thoughts of his own commission. Almost half of the Catholic bishops in the world issued statements that nuanced "Humanae Vitae" into nothing. In the next 10 years of his reign, the pope never wrote another encyclical.In effect, the papal teaching on birth control was not, as the theologians were saying, "received." Therefore, it is not a teaching at all. In my exhaustive history of the papal birth control commission and its aftermath, I cite a learned paper, "The Doctrine of Reception" by James Coriden, a former president of the Canon Law Society of America, which lays the rationale for that position. In that paper, he gives a pretty good account of Catholic history, where the common sense of the people (the sensus fidelium) often overrode papal nonsense..."

[Robert Blair Kaiser has just republished his history of the papal birth commission and its aftermath, The Politics of Sex and Religion, as an ebook. It is available for free[2].]

Bridget Mary's Reflection:Thanks to Robert Kaiser for such a concise article of the history of the Birth Control Commission that all Catholics should know. Yes, indeed, the U.S. bishops are a laughingstock in pursuing the nuns and the Girls Scouts!Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP

Friday, May 18, 2012

"A bill that allows pharmacists and doctors to deny
women access to contraception has been signed into law by Kansas Governor Sam
Brownback. This new law is just one of many bills that the Republican governor
has signed since he came into office. He has recently signed legislation that
pressures abortion clinics with new regulations, legislation that imposes long
waiting times to get an abortion, and legislation that bans insurance companies from covering abortion
procedures.

This new bill, known as the Heath Care Rights of
Conscience Act and sponsored by GOP state Rep. Lance Kinzer, was signed into law
on Monday, and according to The Kansas City Star:

“The new law would bar anyone from being required to prescribe
or administer a drug they “reasonably believe” might result in the termination
of a pregnancy,” and could “open the door for a pharmacist to refuse a request
for something like the “morning-after”
pill.”

Basically, any woman in Kansas could walk into a pharmacy to pick up a birth control prescription and
be denied her medication by the pharmacist. All the pharmacists needs to do is
claim to be acting on his or her religious convictions. And what’s worse, the
pharmacist doesn’t have to refer the prescription to another pharmacy. Likewise,
doctors also can deny women contraception and use religious liberty to get away
with it. Even a woman who becomes pregnant through rape could be denied access
to birth control..."

Bridget Mary's Reflection:Kansas Governor Signs Bill Allowing Pharmacies and Doctors to Deny Women Birth Control/ GOP War on Women and Decisions Over Own Health Care Echoes Catholic Bishops Agenda Against Women as Free Moral Decision Makers in Birth Control and other hot button issues. What ever happened to respect for Primacy of Conscience? It appears when it comes to pelvic issues, the bishops and Republicans are in a lockstep march backwards to the Middle Ages. Needed badly are women priests and women bishops in decision making roles within the church!Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWPwww.arwp.org

This video is Part 5 of Ordination which took place in Ormond Beach, Fl. on April 14, 2012 and includes the Laying on of Hands, Prayer of Consecration for the priests, Investiture with Stole and Chasuble and the Anointing of Hands.

Recently, I shook hands with more than 200 Girl Scouts assembled at Trinity for the annual "In Your Honor" ceremony celebrating the Gold Award and Silver Trefoil Award Girl Scouts of the Nation's Capital Council. As I looked around the room packed with girls, parents and families, I marveled at how this organization keeps girls focused on healthy, wholesome, positive activities in a world where too many young women face exploitation, abuse, disparagement, discouragement and the plague of low expectations. A quick sample of the Gold Award projects clearly demonstrates the plain fact that the Girl Scouts today are about a whole lot more than cookie sales. In one project, a girl developed brochures and video guides to help teenagers dealing with family members who have Alzheimer's. Another project focused on introducing kids living in a homeless shelter to science, technology, engineering and math. Yet another project took on the problem of cyberbullying. Many of the projects focused on literacy, environmental action and drug/alcohol education.The next morning I opened the newspaper and read that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched an investigation into the Girl Scouts.Well, Father, I was really just a Brownie. It didn't last long. Mom pulled me out after the episode with the cookies. I ate more than I sold. About five times.Apparently, the bishops have received some complaints about Girl Scout troops affiliated with Catholic parishes and schools. Seems that some troops have used materials that conflict with Catholic teaching. And there's that longstanding rumor about some tie to Planned Parenthood, which the Girl Scouts have repeatedly refuted."Patricia McGuire, President of Trinity Washington University, reports in the Huffington Post that Catholic bishops have received complaints about Girl Scout troops affiliated with Catholic parishes and schools. Among complaints are that that some troops have used materials that conflict with Catholic teaching, and a longstanding rumor about some tie to Planned Parenthood, which the Girl Scouts have repeatedly refuted..."

As part of the CTA conference here in Portland this weekend, Suzanne Thiel was on
the radio on PBS

Roman Catholic Woman Priest Suzanne Thiel ministers to a community in Portland Oregon.

If you go to this link and under the title "Reforming
Catholicism" there are 2 lines, first one is "air date", second one is "Posted
by Allison Frost" right below that is a small triangle in a circle. If you
click on that triangle, you can listen to the show. the little gray arrow to
the right is the MP# download button, where you can download it to your
computer

For almost 100 years, the Roman Catholic Church has had a strong relationship
with the Girl Scouts. Scores of local Girl Scout troops are hosted by Catholic
parishes, and about 25% of Girl Scouts are Catholic.But now, in response to completely bogus charges by right-wing extremists,
conservative Roman Catholic bishops have opened an official inquiry into the
Girl Scouts of the USA -- despite the fact that the Girl Scouts do not take
any positions on sexuality, birth control, or abortion.1
We can't let what happened to Catholic religious sisters happen again to the
Girl Scouts. The millions of girls and families who participate in the Girl
Scouts don't deserve to become victims of right-wing culture wars.Sign our petition and tell the Bishops: Leave the Girl Scouts
alone!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

THE recent Vatican edict that reproached American nuns for their liberal views on social and political issues has put a spotlight on the practices of these Roman Catholic sisters. While the current debate has focused on the nuns’ progressive stances on birth control, abortion, homosexuality, the all-male priesthood and economic injustice, tension between American nuns and the church’s male hierarchy reaches much further back.

In the 19th century, Catholic nuns literally built the church in the American West, braving hardship and grueling circumstances to establish missions, set up classrooms and lead lives of calm in a chaotic world marked by corruption, criminality and illness. Their determination in the face of a male hierarchy that, then as now, frequently exploited and disdained them was a demonstration of their resilient faith in a church struggling to adapt itself to change..."

Anne M. Butler, a professor emerita of history at Utah State University, is the author of the forthcoming book “Across God’s Frontiers: Catholic Sisters in the American West, 1850-1920.

Bridget Mary's Reflection:Will the bishops ever learn! They keep repeating the same bad behavior- treating women as second class citizens in the church- through the centuries. As Anne Butler concludes, Catholics in the pews appreciate the nuns. The bishops should hang their heads for their despicable treatment of the nuns who in many cases are the unsung heroes of the American Frontier. The power behind the Sisters, (not ecclesiastical!!) was greater than the challenges they faced in founding schools, hospitals and orphanages under the most trying of circumstances! Let's just admit that the hierarchy, then or now, cannot handles gutsy women who usually find a way when there is no way! Perhaps, in this latest clash with the Vatican, they will declare their independence from male control, and open the door to a future of nun priests. Now wouldn't that be grand!Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWPwww.arcwp.org

The primacy of conscience is a major teaching of the church. Even Thomas Aquinas, a doctor of the church, whom Catholic conservatives like to quote, once said that he'd rather die excommunicated then to have violated his conscience! And now we have the Catholic hierarchy violating this major tenet of the Catholic faith! In addition, Pope Benedict has stated in his writing that we must follow our consciences no matter what punishment we face! Why don't the U.S. Catholic bishops and the Vatican follow their own teachings? There is something wrong with this picture!

“These are exactly the
type of young women needed in the Church today.”

As Catholic
organizations we congratulate the Girl Scouts on their 100th year
anniversary and thank them for modeling the best of what girls can be: strong,
bold, value-based young women. What a shame that Catholic officials cannot see
these young women for the gift they are to the church and world.

The Bishops’
attempt to exert pressure on the Girl Scouts is the most recent episode in an
increasingly troubling sequence of attacks against women and girls, both inside
and outside the Church. From the hierarchy’s mandate against the nuns to its
most recent heavy-handed inquiry into the Girl Scouts, the Bishops’ actions not
only reveal the growing gap between the hierarchy and the faithful, but also
sends harmful messages about womanhood to our daughters in faith. We urge the
Bishops to cease the investigations.

As Catholic
organizations that seek a more just and inclusive church, we stand in solidarity
with the 59 million women and girls who have been a part of the Girl Scouts. We
thank these women and girls—our sisters— for their witness of what it means to
be a woman who knows her own giftedness in the face of a religion or society
that too often undervalues her self-worth.

We invite
those who would like to thank the Girl Scouts for their contribution to the
church and society to join us in our Twitter campaign #GodLovesTheGirlScouts.

The Girl Scouts mission states that it “builds girls of courage, confidence and
character” and for that we are grateful. These are exactly the type of young
women needed in the Church today: those who know their self-worth goes beyond
that which is measured by the Bishops’ investigation, but that is rooted in the
simple fact that they are beloved children of God.

This statement is signed
and supported by the following Catholic organizations:

Jim
FitzGerald, Executive Director

Call To
Action

Jon O’Brien,
Executive Director

Catholics
for Choice

Allen and
Sylvia Moore, Co-Presidents

CORPUS

Marianne
Duddy-Burke, Executive Director

DignityUSA

Anne Harter,
Coordinator

Faithful of
Southern Illinois

Tom Quinn,
Liaison

Federation
of Christian Ministries, Roman Catholic Faith Community Council

According to an Argentine newspaper, a secret
document bishops sent to Paul VI in April 1978 highlighted the Church’s role
during the dictatorship years and the disappearances of thousands of political
opponents...The Holy See knew.” During the dictatorship years, an
undetermined number of people “disappeared” at the hands of the armed forces.
Estimates range from the 7,000-8,000 estimated by Videla - the dictator himself
- to the nearly 30,000 claimed by various humanitarian organizations. Before the
1978 World Cup, the Argentine Conference of Bishops informed the Vatican of what
was going on in the country: repression, murders, and disappearances. In his article in Argentine newspaper Página/12,
Horacio Verbitsky writes that a “secret document” was sent to Paul VI by
Argentine bishops. The document which dates back to April 1978, refers to
meetings between Bishops Raul Primatesta, Juan Carlos Aramburu, and Vicente
Zazpe and dictator Jorge Videla. The document says that the issue of the
desaparecidos or missing individuals, was openly raised during these
meetings (which the clergy say were “cordial and sincere”), and that the bishops
also asked where the dead were located. The bishops said that in many cases, the
government could not give “a satisfactory answer,” despite the fact that Bishop
Primatesta insisted “the Church wants to understand and cooperate” with the
State. Videla himself said on several occasions that he had “an excellent
relationship - very friendly, honest, and open” with the Catholic Church... "